Social Casualties - 1 [ 5SOS ]

36. Social Confrontation

° Violet °

The next week consisted of dirty looks from Lydia, and the constant bitter feeling that Ashton ignoring me supplied.

I believed that telling Ashton of my true feelings would relieve all the stress that's accompanied me for the past few months, but it only made it worse.

My lab partner ceased to speak to me, leaving us in an abundance of awkwardness that I found myself begging to be stopped by the ringing bell of the end of class.

We sat at our lab station, at the edges of each side of the table with our faces away from each other as we sat in silence whilst everyone else engaged in conversation.

I sighed to the scenario, drawing small nothings on my notebook paper as I waited for the end of class—and when that finally came, I seemed to still not be able to escape the dreaded science course.

Mr. Marty grasped my attention before I had the chance to leave, feeling Ashton slide passed me as he made way to the exit.

"You too, Mr. Irwin" he called for Ashton, and I felt my nerves rise as Ashton sighed, and stopped behind me

"I need a favour from you two" he said as he ruffled through papers on his desk, and Ashton and I waited for him to continue, "I need the both of you to show your presentation to the class"

"As in before anyone else does?" Ashton asked our teacher.

"No, as in the two of you will show your presentation to the class" he said with a small chuckle as if it were obvious what he'd wanted.

"Why only the two of us?" I asked in confusion.

"Because the two of you seemed to be the only ones who truly understood the project" Mr. Marty explained, "I expect you'll be ready by tomorrow" he dismissed us.

We both walked off awkwardly, still processing what our teacher had told us as we walked out, and into the hallway.

"Do you maybe want to practice for the presentation?" I asked him, and Ashton turned to look at me to respond.

"I think we'll be fine" he said in a soft tone, and a forced smile before walking to the stairs, and toward the exit.

Ω ∆ Ω

"He has no reason to be ignoring you" Alicia said as we all sat in front of my science class during third class after getting permission from Ms. Cardile to miss her class in order to finish any last minute touches on mine and Ashton's presentation, "You told him the truth, he should be fucking grateful" she continued bitterly, looking down at her phone as she spoke (gif).

"I have a feeling you're not entirely talking about Ashton" Jessa said to Alicia, "Okay, I call an emergency therapy session, all of us seem to have some type of burden over our shoulders. Who wants to go first?"

None of us spoke up, except we all looked down at our hands and feet with a small inch of shame in each of our eyes.

"Fine, I suppose I'll go first" Jessa said, trying to think over everything happening to tell us—though we all knew nothing major was happening with her at the moment, "Calum's been paying no attention to me either, and ever since I got into the music program it's seemed as if he regrets helping me" she told us, in attempts to make us feel better with our problems, "Now, Juliet" she said, tapping Juliet's shoulder since she was within arm's reach.

"I have nothing to talk about" she said in a solemn tone which made it obvious that she did have something to talk about—whether she was willing to say it aloud was another thing.